2017 Mediterranean refugee arrivals down by almost half

By Fatih Erel

GENEVA (AA) - A total of 171,635 migrants and refugees entered Europe by sea during 2017 compared with 363,504 arrivals across the region in 2016, according to the UN migration agency on Friday.

The number of deaths during the perilous journey across the Mediterranean was 3,116 last year, marking a significant drop from 5,143 deaths in 2016, IOM spokesman Joel Millman told a press conference in Geneva.

Noting that about 70 percent of these migrants arrived in Italy and the remainder divided between Greece, Cyprus and Spain, Millman said some 119,310 people arrived by sea as irregular migrants to Italy in 2017, the lowest total in four years.

The number of migrants and refugees arriving in Greece dropped from 173,561 in 2016 to 29,595 in 2017, IOM said.

According to IOM, 5,376 people died worldwide during migration between Jan.1 Dec. 31, 2017 which is below 2016’s total of 7,932.